The Federal Reserve raised its benchmark interest rate for the first time since 2023, while the CLARITY Act failed to progress in the Senate and the SEC opened a five-year route for eligible platforms to trade tokenized U.S. stocks.
The Fed increased its rate by 25 basis points to 3.75%-4% on 16 September. All 12 voting Federal Open Market Committee members backed the move, while 16 of its 18 officials forecast at least one further rise before the end of 2026.
Bitcoin briefly neared $76,000 after the announcement but remained under pressure from higher Treasury yields and a stronger dollar. More than $540 million in bullish crypto positions were liquidated over 24 hours, while U.S. spot Bitcoin ETFs recorded net outflows of more than $450 million on 15 September.
The CLARITY Act, which aimed to split digital-asset oversight between the SEC and CFTC, fell short of the 60 votes required to begin debate. A cloture motion was defeated 50-49 after negotiations stalled over government ethics rules, stablecoin rewards, software developer protections and event contracts.
Polymarket’s probability of the bill becoming law in 2026 dropped from 31% to 7%, although Senate leaders could seek another procedural vote.
The SEC separately granted eligible venues conditional permission to trade tokenized National Market System stocks through permissioned automated market makers and liquidity pools for five years. Token holders must receive the same rights and privileges as traditional shareholders. The rules also cover trading limits, public smart contracts and coordinated trading halts, while the SEC is seeking public comment on possible changes.
The House Ways and Means Committee approved the Digital Asset Tax Certainty Act by 38 votes to five. It would exempt qualifying crypto network and transaction fees of up to $10 from tax and also address stablecoins, wash sales, digital-asset lending, mining, staking and broker reporting. The bill can now proceed to a full House vote, although identical legislation would have to pass both chambers before reaching the president.
The House Financial Services Committee advanced an amended bill creating the Strategic Bitcoin Reserve and Digital Asset Stockpile in federal law by 28 votes to 21. Bitcoin placed in the reserve would have a minimum 20-year holding period, while the Treasury and Commerce departments would study budget-neutral purchases without borrowing, new taxes or deficit spending.
The CFTC submitted a proposed crypto-market framework to the White House Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs on 17 September, two days after the CLARITY Act vote. Details have not been released. The proposal must return to the commission for a vote before publication and public consultation.
Circle launched the Arc public mainnet, using USDC for gas, with settlement times below one second. It supports 22 fiat stablecoins and tokenized funds including BUIDL, USYC, JAAA and JTRSY. BlackRock, DTCC, Visa, Mastercard and Standard Chartered are among its initial validators. Circle said the testnet processed more than 700 million transactions.
Coinbase partnered with Stablecore to help U.S. banks provide crypto trading, custody, staking and stablecoin payments through existing systems. Stablecore’s technology reaches more than 3,000 banks and credit unions, though that does not mean all have signed with Coinbase. Amarillo National Bank is already participating.
S&P Global agreed to acquire OpenZeppelin for an undisclosed sum. OpenZeppelin will remain a separate unit and maintain its open-source contracts library. It has completed more than 900 security engagements, with its software used in contracts supporting more than $37 trillion in transfers. The deal follows S&P Global’s participation in Kaiko’s $110 million funding round.
Deutsche Bank plans to launch digital-asset custody later in 2026, subject to regulatory and internal approval. Initial assets will be Bitcoin, Ether, USDC, EURC and EURAU, with the service aimed first at institutional and corporate customers in Germany. The bank will manage wallets and private keys using warm and cold storage.
TRM Labs said fake YouTube tutorials advertising AI arbitrage bots stole 274.6 ETH, worth about $517,000, from 224 victims. Nine videos directed users to compromised compilers that substituted malicious smart contracts. Victims deployed 234 contracts, with a median loss of 1 ETH.
Bitmine Immersion Technologies bought a further 27,180 ETH, taking its holdings to 5,956,378 ETH as of 13 September, valued at nearly $15 billion. The holding represented about 4.9% of Ethereum’s reported 122 million-token supply. Bitmine has staked 5.07 million ETH, roughly 85% of its holdings.
